If you were here 2 weeks ago you may remember that I posed the question, ’What is the church here for?’ That might sound like a straightforward question at first, but I think you’ll find if you ask a range of people what they think the Church should be doing, you’ll get a range of answers. Now probably most of those answers will express reasonable expectations of the Church. I imagine they’ll be things like the Church should be telling people about Jesus, it should be teaching Christians how to be more faithful followers of Christ, it should be teaching the bible, the stories of Jesus, etc. They might say it should be caring for those who have particular needs, it should be providing opportunities for worship, for fellowship, it should be caring for the poor and needy, it should be getting involved in politics, or it shouldn’t be getting involved in politics. The range of views and the number of activities and priorities that will be suggested, will be enormous.
But I want to ask today, what is our primary task? What was the main reason that Jesus called out that group of followers, the disciples, who later formed the early church? As I said 2 weeks ago, the primary reason the Church exists is to proclaim the gospel. The great commission in Matt 28 is this: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Jesus’ last words to his disciples as recorded in Acts 1 are these: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." So there’s little doubt what Jesus thought the primary task of the Church should be. Similarly in that passage from Ephesians 3 that we just read, we discover an amazing thing. God has chosen to reveal his wisdom in all its rich variety to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, but notice how he’s chosen to reveal them (v10): through the Church! Just look around you. This group of people here, you and I, are God’s chosen agents for revealing his glory, his wisdom, to the world.
So the question is this: how are we to live in such a way that our witness is seen as believable? That is, how are we to be a credible Christian Church? e.g. when we’re working at the market next week, wearing our name tags, of course, will people notice the way we work together and think what a great group of people there are here at St Theo’s? When we hand out our leaflets, will they be more inclined to read them because they’ve seen what a difference it makes to be a part of a Christian community?
Well, what I want to do today is to look at just 3 passages, that I think bring out at least some of the ways that we as a church might be more credible in our life together.
The first passage is that section from Eph 3:7-4:16. Now let me suggest that the whole of Ephesians, but particularly this section is concerned with the issue of Christian unity. It’s as though Paul sees that the degree to which we demonstrate unity in our life together will determine our effectiveness in preaching the gospel. Look down at 4:4-6. As we’re proclaiming the gospel, we’re proclaiming a message about a God for whom unity is of the essence. "There is one body and one Spirit, ... 5one Lord, ... 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all." Ours is a Trinitarian God. Three persons in one. Ours is a God who encompasses within himself all of creation. And what he’s done is to call us to join his family, to become like him, particularly in the way we express our unity, our solidarity.
So if we’re to be credible as a Church we need to be united. I’m in contact with a number of other clergy and of course this is time of year for AGMs to be held. And I hear various stories of other churches’ AGMs. Let me tell you they’re not all the friendly and encouraging meetings that we’re used to having. Some of them could be likened to a war zone. What does that say about the gospel they proclaim? It turns it into mere words doesn’t it? Rather than the expression of the power of God for salvation.
So how are we going to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Well, let’s look at this passage and see what hints there are here for us. I guess we could do worse than to start with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. Look at the sorts of things he prays for in 3:16-18. He prays that they may be strengthened in their inner being with power through his Spirit. That’s not a bad place to start is it? If we start simply by resolving to be more united, we’ll be about as successful as most of us will be with our new year’s resolutions next month. We might make some progress, but our weak human nature is likely to win out in the end. But if we’re strengthened in our inner being with power through God’s Spirit, the possibilities are incredible. I spoke 2 weeks ago about how what we say and do depends on what’s in the heart. And the reality is that the only way for us to change what’s in our heart is for God to change it.
I wonder how often you pray that God would change your heart, or that God would strengthen you in your inner being? If you’ve been struggling with some particular sin for some time, what do you pray about it? Do you pray that God would remove the temptation? Well, chances are, he won’t. Most temptations we face are just part of our world. God would have to bring in a new world to remove them. We long for that day but it isn’t yet. Do you pray that God would help you to fight the temptation when it comes. Well, that’s a good thing to pray. Or do you pray that God would strengthen you in your inner being with power; that God would rebuild your engine; bore out the cylinders so you’ve got more power internally to resist the temptation when it comes?
I remember a number of years ago when my father was working as an engineer. He had quite a few of his work mates die from heart attacks and he realised that the sort of work he was doing was both sedentary and stressful. He was in a high risk category for a heart attack himself. So what did he do? He could have asked for a change of job but he enjoyed the work he was doing. He was too young to retire so that wasn’t an option. Instead he decided he needed to improve his fitness. He began walking up the stairs rather than taking the lift. He got out his 5BX exercise book and began to do regular exercises. He knew that the best way to avoid a heart attack was to increase his heart’s strength. So too, we need our hearts strengthened if we’re to show the sort of unity that the gospel calls for.
But he also prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, as they are being rooted and grounded in love. We need to be rooted and grounded in love. In other words, love has to be the foundation of our whole life together. Those people who play power games in churches, or who manipulate to get their own way, or who complain and grumble when things aren’t to their liking are often lacking at this point. Their motivation, the source of their behaviour, isn’t love, it’s self interest. It’s a desire to control or to get what they want, not what may be better for others.
Look at 4:2: He begs them to live a life worthy of their calling with all humility and gentleness, bearing with one another in love with all patience, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The key there I think is those words humility, gentleness, patience and peace. It seems to me that it will be a lot easier to maintain our unity if our life together is characterised by humility, gentleness, patience and a desire for peace. Again, that may require the Holy Spirit to work in us to change us. So let’s make that part of our prayer as well, that the Holy Spirit would not only strengthen us in our inner being, but that he might change us to make us more humble, more gentle, more patient and more peaceful.
Well, that’s the first of the 3 passages I set out to look at, so let’s move on to the second. That’s Matt 18. Here we find that maintaining unity and peace doesn’t mean ignoring the hurts and wrongs that others might inflict on us. You see, we’re all human and Jesus understood the sorts of things that would happen in any church in the real world. He knew that there would be times when two people would be in conflict, or where one person would do something that would offend another. And so he set down guidelines to help us in those situations to maintain our unity through relationships based on righteous responses to wrongs.
Notice how the procedures that Jesus sets up allow wrongs to be addressed without them becoming the source of wider disruption to the unity of the Church. If someone sins against you what do you do? Well, in other circles you go and complain about it to your friends or work colleagues. But not in the Church!
No, in the church you go and speak about it in private to the person who’s offended you. This is not a matter for public discussion at this stage. Rather in the context of a church where all the members are acting with humility, gentleness, patience and a desire for peace it’s something that can be quickly resolved. You see, a credible Christian church will be characterised by people who know that they’re sinners and are willing to humbly confess their sins to one another and ask for forgiveness. So when someone points out to me how I’ve hurt them by something I’ve said or done, or left undone, I’ll repent and ask their forgiveness. And having done that they’ll then respond to me with forgiveness. And they’ll wipe the slate clean the way God does. So that if it happens again they won’t come up to me and say, "See, you did it again." Rather they’ll deal with me with the same sort of patience with which God deals with them.
Of course if the person won’t acknowledge their sin, then the matter escalates and 2 or 3 witnesses are brought in, though notice it’s still not on the public record. It’s not something to be gossiped about. Not even something to be raised in a small group when prayer points are asked for. Only if there’s a constant refusal to repent does it become a public issue involving the whole church. And even then, notice that the church is involved in a public way, not via the gossip channels or the grapevine.
Finally, turn to 1 Peter 4:7-11, because there we find a number of instructions on how to live as credible Christians. First he says time is running out so they need to discipline themselves so they have time to pray. It’s been commented a number of times in the past year that one of the areas we fall short here at St Theo’s is in the time we give to prayer. That’s talking about our public prayer times, but it may equally be true of the amount of time we give to private prayer. Notice that things haven’t changed. Prayer required as much discipline in the first century as it does now. And the end of all things is nearer now than it was then, so we need to be even more serious and disciplined.
Then he says ’maintain constant love for one another.’ We hardly need to say it again do we? The way we love one another is one of the telling signs that we belong to Jesus. Jesus said ’this is how people will know that you’re my disciples.’ And this reflects on what we found in Matt 18. Love covers a multitude of sins. If we love our brothers and sisters we’ll be willing to forgive them and we’ll be seeking their forgiveness if we’ve wronged them. But this sort of love requires maintenance. It something we have to work at like any of the other characteristics we’ve thought about.
He says be hospitable to one another without complaining. The last part is often the hardest, I think. It actually costs us to be hospitable. We have to give up our precious time for one thing. Mind you a lot of us would probably have wasted it sitting in front of the idiot box anyway. We have to be prepared to let people see the way we live. We have to spend time and energy getting ready then cleaning up afterwards. If we show hospitality to families with young children we might have to clean up a mess afterwards, or even risk our precious possessions being broken. I remember having some friends come to stay when we lived in Canberra. They had 2 boys who were your typical young boys, into everything, exuberant, adventurous, etc. And of course in the process, things can get broken can’t they? Well our friends were so embarrassed. They thought they’d never be invited back again. But you know, they were only things! We got so much out of having them stay, out of seeing their boys enjoying themselves, being themselves, that a few broken toys were irrelevant. So let me encourage you to be hospitable without complaining.
’Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.’ Next year we’re going to be thinking more about the gifts that God has given us, but for now we need to realise that God has given us all a variety of gifts, and that those gifts are given so we can use them to build one another up, to serve one another.
And notice that when we use those gifts we’re to do it like we mean it. "Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God." Now this isn’t just someone like me getting up to preach. It’s whoever speaks. I think one of the greatest hindrances to the credibility of the Church today is those people who speak abut their faith but aren’t quite sure if it’s all true. They tell you the resurrection is central, but they’re not really sure that they mean a bodily resurrection. They read the Bible but they’re not convinced that it’s all the word of God. Even the gospels are problematic because we’re not really sure which of Jesus sayings are really his words and which were made up by the disciples. And people go away wondering why they bother. If it’s that unclear why waste your time. Of course Paul said that, when he wrote to the Corinthians: "If we’ve believed all this in vain, then we’re of all people most to be pitied!" Now I don’t mean we should be triumphalist or false about the way we present the gospel. We’re not trying to bluff people, and if we are then they’ll soon see through it. Rather we need to be convinced in our own minds, and then when we speak, do it as though it were God speaking. Because that’s in fact what’s happening. We’re his ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. And if we speak as though we’re speaking the very words of God it gives us confidence, knowing that God is at work through our words.
Finally, whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies. If you work with the strength that God gives, you might have more energy to serve others mightn’t you? And certainly the end result of your service is likely to be more effective isn’t it?
Well, again we’re out of time and I’m sure there’s much more I could say. But let me finish by repeating what I said at the start. Our primary task as a Church is to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. To make disciples. Our effectiveness in doing that may well depend on how we live as a community under the headship of Christ. So let’s pray that we might be united to one another, bound together by love and that we might serve God and one another with all the energy that God supplies.
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